Wichita eagle., 1887-08-23
PEOPLES SIGNATURES.
THE COMPARATIVE VALUES GIVEN
THEM BY AUTOGRAPH HUNTERS.

ITEM by Az OORHff1 f1ON C1Os
A Price List Where Living Celebrities
May Learn the Market Value of Their
signatures-Singers, Authors and Other
Folk.
There is one division of the autographs
price list whose perusal might have healthy,
humbling effect on living men, whom much
newspaper mention and the receipt, doubtless,
of m ny eloquent requests for gratuitous au-
tographs have led to believe that their flow
ing signatures must have considerable pecu-
mary value, elsewhere than on checks or other
instruments for the payment of money. The
division referred to gives the market value of
contemporary names, and there the celebrity
may, to some extent, sec himself as others see
him, not only per Sc, but in comparison with
other celebrities, whom he may have been in
clined to regard as not celebrities at all
Nonsense aside, many man must wonder
why lis signature should be more or less vall-
able than his neighbours. Here, for instance,
are two men whose Offices are within pistol
shot of each other on Wall street, Robert g.
Ingersoll and Roscoe Conkling. Both are
famous, to be sure, but both are in active
business. and probably sign their names very
many times every day. Yet their signatures
have value, and the curious part of it is that
the market rate of the latter exceeds that of
the former by 100 per cent. for a simple sig
nature. A signed letter of Colonel Ingersolls
is worth s125. 1t is evident that these gen.
tlemen, leaving out of consideration the fact
that the market might become overstocked,
could earn even larger incomes than hard
brain work brings them now by simply sigE-
ing their names for few hours every day.
When Mr.. Joseph II. Choate reflects that a
short letter signed by him is worth a good
dollar of any mans money, and begins to cal
culate how many lie has written in his life,
he will probably begin to regard himself as a
prodigal. If Jennie June's" signature alone
is worth fifty cents what ought she not to re-
ceive for the bright papers she furnishes so
lavishly for the press?
In fact the signatures Of all authors Of any
standing, living or dead, command such prices
that when one has written two or three sue
cessful books he ought seriously to consider
whether he would not be better off. certainly
in purse, perchance in reputation, by confin-
ing all his penwork, thenceforth, TO mere
repetitions of his autograph
There is more sense in this suggestion than
might at first appear. A short signed note Of
"Ouidas," for instance, is worth So. She
makes it a rule not to notice requests for au-
tographs, and that fact is widely advertised
have no doubt that any enterprising auto
graph dealer would cheerfully pay her, for a
number of such notes under contract that
she would honorably continue, as to all other
people, her present rule, a very much larger
amount than even she could otherwise earn
by her pen in as short a time and with as
little trouble.
The prices Of signed letters are not fair
tests of the value OF the writer's name. Ac-
cidental circumstances, such as length, state
of preservation, and, above ell, the ubjects
concerning which they were written have too
much to do with determining their market
price
Among the songstresses Emma Abbott's sig
nature is worth % cents, five times as much
as that of the governor of a neighborine
state, whose name sounds like hers, and has
as many letters in it. She has reason to pride
herself on being Of more value, in this re-
spect, at least, than any other prima donna
listed, except Sontag, IS cents; Patti, so
cents, and Marie Roze, 80 cents Anna
Louise Carey, Nine. Anna Bishop Miss Kel-
logg, Adelaide Phillips and Emma c. Thursby
are all far below her mark
According to this test people famous in
other more or less public walks of life NAV DO
classed as follows: Among stage folk, first,
Charlotte Cushman and Sarah Bernhardt;
second, Salvini; third, e. a Sothern: fourth.
Mary Anderson, Lolita, j. w. WaIack,
Lester Wallack and Henry Irving; fifth,
Lawrence Barrett, Nine Janauschek, Edwin
Booth and Ernesto Rossi; sixth, H. J. Mon
tague and Joseph jefferson; seventh. Dion
Boucicault, Mrs. d. ?. Bowers, Kate Clax-
ton, W. J. Florence, J. H Hackett, Mrs.
Scott Siddons and Charles Wyndham.
Authors range as follows: First class, J.
Fenimore Cooper and w. NJ Thackeray;
second, Dickens; third, Emerson, Washing
ton Irving, Longfellow and Walt Whitman:
fourth, Bryant; fifth, Oliver Wendell Holmes;
sixth, Fitz Greene Halleck and Bayard Tav-
lor; seventh, Mark Twain, D. w Howells,
Helen Hunt Jackson, James K Paulding,
Harriet Beecher Stowe, n. p Willis and Pro-
fessor Wilson; eighth, James T. Fields. Emily
Faithful, Paul II. Hayne, Mary Russell Nit
ford; ninth, I. B. Aldrich, Lydia H. Child,
the author Of kathleen Mavourneen: John
Hay, the author Of "Curfew Shall Not Ring
Tonight" and Richard Grant White: ninth,
A. Bronson Alcott, H. C. Bunner, George W.
Cable, Edward Eggleston, Grace Greenwood,
Edward Everett Hale, Thomas Wentworth
Higginson, Sidney Lanier, Donald G. Mitch
ell, Miss Parloa. James r. Randall. Mrs.
harrington" Mrs. E. d. E. n Southu orth,
j. T. Trowbridge, Martin F. Upper and Miss
Evans; tenth. John Bigelow.-New York
4 '0,u,,,errial hivar+iSar